All the festivity and joy during China’s Lunar New Year came at a high cost.
China is well known for its issues with massive pollution and smog, especially in its capital of Beijing.
But over this weekend, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said that air pollution had reached its second-highest level in 5 years, peaking at an air quality index of 647.
The upper limit in Beijing is supposed to be 500, and the hazardous level of pollution is set at 300, meaning that the air quality was more than twice the hazardous level and well over the upper limit.
This pollution comes despite the fact that Beijing has been waging a “war against pollution” since 2014. To prevent high pollution levels, Beijing officials posted signs warning residents to avoid lighting fireworks and approved fewer fireworks stalls. The government-controlled Xinhua News Agency reported that fireworks sales did manage to fall by 5%, but this was not enough to stop the subsequent heavy air pollution.
As a result, many citizens of Beijing welcomed the Lunar New Year wearing air masks.
Research performed by the Nanjing University attributed smog to 1/3 of deaths in China. The International Energy Agency stated that smog shortened life expectancy by 2 years in China. Beijing promised to reduce air pollution by 25% this year compared to air pollution levels in 2012 but so far, that promise seems to be extremely hard to keep. The Chinese government has not been able to crack down on factory production—a major contributor to China’s air pollution, due to the fear of economic downturn.
As we move into 2017 and embark on this wild rollercoaster ride to probable death called the Trump presidency, we must not forget those people on the other side of the world struggling to prevent their own destruction of the environment. Though climate change deniers may push their agenda of keeping up production and factories despite the obvious environmental damage, China’s constant battle against smog serves as a reminder to the devastating consequences of air pollution.
